LISE is a cinematic opera encounter – a hybrid between recorded concert and film – with soprano Lise Davidsen, the Norwegian National Opera Orchestra and conductor Edward Gardner. Viewers get to experience Lise Davidsen in the roles of three strong women from Richard Strauss’ operas: the Marschallin (from Der Rosenkavalier), Arabella and Ariadne, all created by the composer who is particularly famed for his writing for the soprano voice. The three women are at different stages of life, but all reflect on who they are, where they are going, and what they have become: ‘This I still must find: the young woman that I was’ says the mature Marschallin, while the young Arabella wonders what or who she is really longing for and Ariadne longs to lose herself in order to find what has been lost. (Barbican, 2022)
The exhilarating soprano Lise Davidsen makes her Live in HD debut in one of her signature roles, the mythological Greek heroine of Strauss’s enchanting masterpiece. The outstanding cast for this March 12 transmission also features mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard as the Composer of the opera-within-an-opera around which the plot revolves, with soprano Brenda Rae as the spirited Zerbinetta and tenor Brandon Jovanovich as Ariadne’s lover, the god Bacchus. Marek Janowski conducts. This live cinema transmission is part of the Met’s award-winning Live in HD series, bringing opera to movie theaters across the globe.
Beethoven’s only opera is a masterpiece, an uplifting story of risk and triumph. In this new production, conducted by Antonio Pappano, David Butt Philip plays the political prisoner Florestan, and Lise Davidsen his wife Leonore (disguised as ‘Fidelio’) who daringly sets out to rescue him. Set in strong counterpoint are the ingredients of domestic intrigue, determined love and the cruelty of an oppressive regime.
Beethoven’s only opera is a masterpiece, an uplifting story of risk and triumph. In this new production, conducted by Antonio Pappano, Jonas Kaufmann plays the political prisoner Florestan, and Lise Davidsen his wife Leonore (disguised as ‘Fidelio’) who daringly sets out to rescue him. Set in strong counterpoint are the ingredients of domestic intrigue, determined love and the cruelty of an oppressive regime. The music is transcendent throughout and includes the famous Act I Quartet, the Prisoners’ Chorus and Florestan’s impassioned Act II cry in the darkness and vision of hope. Tobias Kratzer’s new staging brings together the dark reality of the French Revolutionary ‘Terror’ and our own time to illuminate Fidelio’s inspiring message of shared humanity.
Antonio Pappano conducts a full performance of the second opera in Richard Wagner’s epic Der Ring des Nibelungen. During a storm, Sieglinde gives shelter to a wounded stranger. They find themselves drawn to each other. He is Siegmund, the twin from whom Sieglinde was separated in childhood. Unknown to them, their father is Wotan, the most powerful of the gods. Through Siegmund, Wotan hopes to retrieve a gold ring of ultimate power that he cannot take himself.
Directed by Danish filmmakers Bjarne and Astrid Henning-Jensen, THOSE BLASTED KIDS tells a story of a group of back-alley urchins that is considered Denmark’s first true children’s film.
